


Predatory

by Gage



Series: The Road So Far [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV), Supernatural
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Crossover, Gen, M/M, Repressed Memories, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22134265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gage/pseuds/Gage
Summary: The Jo he knew, the one in his memory, was a hunter, and as far as he knew she still was one.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Series: The Road So Far [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605493
Comments: 16
Kudos: 108





	Predatory

**Author's Note:**

> This goes out to those amazing peeps on the Buddie Discord, this could not have been made possible if they hadn't expanded on one small idea. Big thanks to Nili for going over this for me.

* * *

Buck’s had this feeling of the ground being shaky under his feet for a while now. Normally this feeling of unease hits him just before something big happens.When Bobby disappeared, Abby leaving him, the earthquake, the bombing, the tsunami… and now. The moment the young woman stepped into station 118, it felt like a door in the back of his mind cracked open. Letting out a clip of long-forgotten memory,

_Wide-open field with targets lined up more than a few feet away. The sound of a knife being flung, an arrow flying through the air. Each hitting the target within seconds of being released._

_“Told you, can’t beat a good…”_

_“Shut up… I got it right didn’t I.” The ten-year-old boy frowns as he examines the way the arrow is embedded to the left of the bullseye._

_“Whatever Buckley. Knives beat arrows every time.” The sixteen-year-old girl laughs as she pulls her weapon out from the bullseye._

_“Yeah well, that’s a hand to hand thing, I wouldn’t wanna mess with anything that close anyhow.,” he shrugs, still trying to tug out the arrow._

_“And you won’t be going on any hunts ‘till you’re older.”_

_He turns to look up at her, eyes narrowed down in disbelief “You went on a hunt with Walker the other…”_

_She doesn’t let him finish before she’s up in his face, that smile turning into something that scares the shit out of him. “DON’T…”_ _The boy flinches moving back a step, she seems to shake the anger and her entire body goes almost completely lax. “Buck, you stay away from him OK?”_

_“OK…” He knew that Gordan Walker wasn’t such a good guy, he knew it from the moment he first saw him last summer. He had made sure to steer clear of him. Whatever it is that he did was bad enough that his Aunt had banned him from the roadhouse._

_“I mean it… he’s not a good guy, that gut feeling you have… the one that makes you flinch…” She pokes his stomach. No one knew about that except for her, and that was only to keep her from thinking he was sick. “Always keep that with you.”_

Buck is brought back to the present when she spins in place and looks up right at him. A small smile on her face that doesn’t exactly reach her eyes. “Evan…”

“Jo…” That feeling of unease hits him in the worst way possible, making his stomach clench so hard he actually flinches and brings a hand up to press against it, and he takes a breath. 

“Buck… you okay?” Eddie comes to stand by his side, a warm hand on his back, voice filled with concern. Buck’s heart is racing because he hasn’t seen Joanna Harvelle since his Dad picked him up that last summer and got into a screaming match with Aunt Ellen. He’d just turned sixteen and done his first… holy shit. It literally takes his breath away as he remembers bit by bit. Turns to look at the man he loves with fear in his heart, Eddie who just the other night confessed to being apart of the world that Buck grew up in, and up until that moment he thought he’d left behind. Forgotten. 

“Buck?” 

Shit. All he wanted to do after this shift was to go home to Eddie and Christopher, wind down with his boys and just forget the crap that they’d gone through today. “Looks like I’m not gonna make it to dinner after all.” Buck sighs heavily, all his good feelings about tonight drains out of him as Jo makes her way to the stairs. Instinct has him stepping in front of a very confused Eddie just as he sees her pause and glancing towards the two of them, taking in their proximity to one another. Buck stands tall and defensive glaring down at her. The Jo he knew, the one in his memory, was a hunter, and as far as he knew she still was one. He can see how it takes her off guard. They use to be so close but they haven’t seen each other in years. A lot could have changed in that time. Buck moves to go down the steps before a tug on his wrist stops him and he turns slightly, seeing Eddie’s eyes shine with concern. Buck doesn’t even know how to begin to explain what’s going on, so he just leans down pressing a kiss to those warm lips. “Love you…” he whispered before descending the steps, hoping its not the last time he gets to say that. 

“Not here,” is all he says as he passes Jo and goes to collect his stuff. 

“Nice to see you too cuz.” 

~*~ 

  
  


Buck lets the door to his apartment stay open as he dumps his bag upstairs. He’s still sifting through the minefield behind that closed door in his head. A horrible bark of laughter escapes his mouth as he now knows why he never could stand being in one place long enough to set down roots. Doesn’t even question how he’d forgotten the supernatural side of his travels. Well shit. When the mind wants to forget, it really can. He pauses at the steps as he takes in his cousin sitting at the counter with an open bottle of whiskey between two half filled shot glasses. He makes his way down towards the kitchen. Passing the counter he reaches out, fingers skimming one of the glasses before he changes his mind. He wants to be sober for this conversation. 

“Your boyfriend’s cute.” 

“Don’t…” 

Jo holds her hands out, flips the left one about revealing a butterfly knife, placing it on the counter in front of her. “I didn’t come here to fight.” 

No. That much was true but he couldn’t just ignore the sour feeling in his gut. “What did you come here for?” 

Jo takes a deep breath as if bracing herself, “I need your help.” 

Buck takes a step back, head tilting in confusion. “With what.” 

“A hunt,” She’s not able to look him in the eyes. 

Buck shakes his head in disbelief, after all this time she comes out of the blue to ask him for help with something that he didn’t even remember until today. “Are you out of your mind?” 

Jo flinches as he walks past her, “Evan…” 

“Joanna….” He grits out stalking towards the fridge and pulling out a bottle of water. He really wishes he could indulge in alcohol right now, he’s been off blood thinners for a week. Still, old habits die hard and all that. He turns to face her. “As I remember it, my dad took me away from that life.” 

“But that life didn’t leave you…” Jo spins the shot glass in her hand, “Not when your dad ripped you away from the road house, not when you left home. Not when you went to Brazil with that hot little number, not when you tried out for the SEALS, which wow, really?”

“Keeping tabs on me,” Buck’s feeling that deep ache in his stomach as he makes his way towards the window, leans against the dresser. “Funny, I don’t remember sending any post cards.” 

“You’re family Evan.” Jo tosses back the contents of the shot glass.

Buck closes his eyes, can taste the blood in his mouth as his teeth sink a little too deep into his bottom lip. He really wishes this wasn’t happening right now, that she hadn’t walked into his life. 

“I need your help…” 

He hears her sneakers shuffle against the floor about a few feet before it stops, and inhumane laugh echoes around his apartment. Buck takes a deep breath to calm his racing heart, his eyes fluttered open. Jo is stuck where she stands, a look of surprise is on her face it melts into a devious smirk, eyes filling in the black ink. “Well well well… looks like they was right about the _baby hunter_ after all.” 

Buck glances up at the same time not!Jo does. There on the ceiling in paint that can only be seen in the right light, is an intricate image three times its original size. 

“If you let me out right now… I promise not to hurt you or your little boyfriend.” Not!Jo grins as if it has the upper hand. 

Buck laughs, shaking his head. There’s something else in his memory that he’s managed to bury all these years, something he’s never told anyone. Something Aunt Ellen had to beg him not to show anyone or the wrong kind of people would end his life. 

“ _Baby, they would never understand.”_

Ash had gone through great pains to bury the records, and Buck swore it would never see the light of day. 

Until now.

The grin on Not!Jo’s face slips away, the thing tilts her head, inky black eyes following him. “Sorry to disappoint but this isn’t gonna go the way you planned it.” Buck comes around her, watching not!Jo’s body begin to stumble around the circle. “Right now what you’re feeling is fatigue… and in a minute it’s gonna make you feel everything you’ve put my cousin through.” 

Not!Jo snarls at him, waving a hand around when nothing happens Buck smiles but it’s not one that reaches his eyes, which narrow down at the monster hiding in his cousin’s body. “Performance anxiety?” Not!Jo glances back at the empty shot glass then back at Buck as he opens his right hand. He feels it grow warm, he hasn’t done this in awhile. His first hunt wasn’t when he was sixteen, he remembers it clearly now.

_Ten-year-old Buck is standing in front of the target, still trying to get the stupid arrow out of the bullseye, a branch behind him snaps and he whirls around. Free hand grabbing another arrow out of the holder, notching it back, aiming at the man that’s smiling by the tree. The man whose entire eyes are inky black. “Helloo there baby hunter, wanna play a game?” the man reaches out a hand..._

Buck glances up at not!Jo whose eyes widen with something akin to horror, body shaking with pain. “See I think Jo really did need help, it’s why she nudged you to come here.” Buck walks to the edge of the circle, “She just didn’t know why.” Not!Jo tries to move away but Buck is faster, holding her still with his left hand and moving to place his other on her forehead.

Not!Jo screeches. “You do that and you will **never** have your answers!” It makes him pause, and not!Jo smirks. “You still don’t know what happened to your mother, and I can tell you everything you want to know.” 

Buck’s heart stutters in his chest, he thinks back to that teenage boy who started asking questions, the answers he didn’t exactly understand then. “I’ve got all the answers I need,” 

“I’ll just come back…. WE ALL DO.” 

It’s a desperate attempt at stalling. “Not this time.” He places his hand on her forehead, closing his eyes as he reaches deep down inside of Jo to collect what shouldn’t be there. He flinches as the thing inside of her lets out an inhuman scream as Buck works to burn it away. 

_The man flops down to the ground as he lets go of him, the burning sensation in his hand fades away. Ellen comes running up to him, grabbing him away from the man. Ash comes up beside her, a rifle in his hand aimed down to the ground._ _Ellen stands him a few feet away checking him over, cupping his face making him look at her._

 _“Are you alright?” He doesn’t know if he is so he just shrugs. “Listen to me, and listen good, you are not to tell a soul what you just did.” His eyes widen as he tries to look back at the man on the floor. Ellen forces him to look at her again. “Evan Buckley, you_ **_never_ ** _show anyone what you can do, you hear me?”_ _She’s squeezing him too tight, he cries as he nods. Aunt Ellen wraps her arms around him, apologizing for being so rough. “I’m so sorry baby, I don’t mean to scare you but you can’t ever let on, people won’t understand.” She strokes the back of his head, “And the wrong sort will kill you if they ever find out.”_

The burning sensation in his hand fades away. Buck catches Jo’s body, slowly lowering her to the ground. He removes his jacket rolling it up and placing it under her head. Takes a deep breath carefully assessing any injuries she might have sustained from being possessed for god knows how long. Aside from some deep bruising and lacerations, she seems to be in good condition. Buck looks up at the ceiling. He doesn’t really remember painting that when he moved in. There’s a vague memory of him as a child, drawing it anywhere he could at the time, never really understanding why or how. Like many other things he had forgotten about that too. Jo showing up like she did, or rather, not!Jo, has opened up that door in his mind that he was sure he’d locked up tight. Buck is suddenly knocked onto his ass as the memories flood to the front of his mind. 

_His mother with white eyes…blue eyes… inky black eyes… crying out for him._

_Every summer being shipped off to spend with Aunt Ellen and Jo._

_Training disguised as games._

_Jo with her collection of knives, Buck with a series of different arrows._

_His Dad ripping him away from Aunt Ellen's arms, screaming that his son would never become the very people who murdered his wife._

Gasping for breath as he recalls a moment in Brazil, echoes of conversation… 

_A brunette lays in his bed, caressing his arm, promising to protect him ‘baby hunter’… the way his_ **mother** _couldn’t._

_Buck wrestling her down to the ground as she laughs, screams at him when he places a heated hand on her forehead._

_A man in a trench coat had appeared in a blink of an eye just as Buck had made the demon inside the woman burn out..._

_The burning sensation in his ribs as the man places both hands on him, speaking another language._

_“What the hell did you do to me?”_

It all floods back so much faster than he can catch it. Buck wasn’t lying when he said he had his answers. He blinks back into reality and curses at Jo for bringing all this back into his life. That wasn’t really fair but he was feeling a little less than charitable towards her.

“Ouch… could you have made that any less painful?” She rubs at the bruise on her forehead. 

“Your lucky I didn’t put you out with it.” He doesn’t mean to sound snappy but he wasn’t wrong. His life was just getting back to something resembling normal, Jo showing up just blew that all to hell. 

“I didn’t know where else to go.” 

That’s the bitch of it, no one else could do what he just did. He knows because he asked once and only once. Buck reaches out a hand and together they help one another stand. Grins at how ridiculous they look. Jo used to be taller than him, use to love to lord that over him. Now he’s got a good foot and a half on her and he grins, because if nothing else he finds it hilarious that she has to look up at him. Jo punched him on the shoulder and his mouth drops open in shock. “Ow, what was that for?” 

“For taking so long to remember.” 

“That is not my fault.” 

Jo shrugs and walks over to the island, snatching up the shot pouring it down the drain. “When did you figure it out.” 

Buck points down at the bottle and shot glasses. “You hate whiskey, can’t stand the taste of it since your Dad passed… and it called me Evan.” It also called him baby hunter but he’s not about to have that discussion with her. Not when Jo doesn’t know the whole story. 

“Wow…” 

“Yeah,” 

The silence stretches between them, one that isn’t exactly awkward but it isn’t comfortable either. 

“So are we gonna talk about the werewolf boyfriend or…” 

Buck stabbed a finger in her direction, “No, but we are going to talk about how you found me in the first place.” 

“Can I at least shower first? That fucker was driving for about a month.” 

“Sure, upstairs to the left.” 

Jo climbs the stairs real slow before pausing at halfway up. Turns slightly in place, “I’m sorry…” 

Buck opens his mouth to wave off her apology but she keeps going. 

“I’m sorry we let your Dad take you, and that we didn’t fight harder to keep you with us.” Her eyes are shining with tears and he can see the tremble in her arms. 

“Jo…” 

“No, we’re family. We should have done better.” Nods before she continues up the stairs, leaving him with an ache in his heart. 

  
  


Buck waits till hears the water run takes out his cell phone and dialing up the first number he comes across. It rings twice before being picked up. “Eddie… no uh… we’re good…. No you don’t have to come over… yeah I promise I’ll explain everything tomorrow… I’m sure…” Buck spends a few more minutes just listening to Eddie’s voice as he tells him about Christopher's afternoon, how he missed him at dinner but was excited to see him when he comes back. It makes the ache in his heart dull just that much. It takes everything inside of him not to pack a bag and just hightail it out of here. Buck hears the shower shuts off and knows his time is up. “I uh… I gotta go but I will definitely see you tomorrow… I will… I love you.” 

It’s hard to end that call but he knows he has too. Glances back at the scorch marks on his floor. He’d just gotten used to his world being a little bit bigger after their conversation the other night. Now… now he hopes that he can protect what’s his.


End file.
